Letters: Measuring success; aircraft radar

From Maureen NorrieThe overall thrust of Michael Bond's feature on how to succeed (8 March, p 30) seems to be that success is related to high positions in socially prestigious occupations, and to world-changing deeds, such as those recognised by the Nobel committee.

Linking such positions and achievements with intelligence relegates those roles on which we rely for survival to the less intelligent. Examples quoted are the police, craftsmen and clerical workers. Perhaps we should redefine success as the ability to do what our hearts' desire – and doing it well.Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, UK

From Charles T. RossWhen it comes to judging the achievements of those in education, the one-size-fits-all approach of exams and league tables is convenient for administrators and politicians, so we are unlikely to see much change any time soon. However, the internet will constructively destroy the existing education behemoth. Distance learning and freely available online courses are the future. The message to the younger generation is to go out and grab the future, don't expect the older generation to hand it to you on a plate. Nowadays they do not know how to.Devizes, Wiltshire, UK

From Peter InkpenMichael Slezak reports that the tools for cellular fusion may have been co-opted from viruses (1 March, p 16). Why then did it take around 2.7 billion years for cells to incorporate and adapt these viral genes for their own use? This Precambrian period is an unimaginably vast span of time representing many trillions of cell generations. In comparison to the most recent 600 million years, characterised by the enormous diversification of plant and animal species, it seems as though life was stuck in an evolutionary slow gear for most of the Precambrian.Little Chalfont, UK

From Harry HopkinsThe disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (15 March, p 6) brings the disadvantage of secondary radar to the fore, which is that the aircraft has to be "cooperating" to be seen. Primary radar is primitive, but it gives a picture of everything in the air around. The nuisance of the primary radar beam reflecting off rain-bearing clouds was one of the main reasons it was relegated, and now its main civilian role is to keep an eye on the development of these storm clouds. There are primary radars around the Gulf of Thailand, it is surprising and disappointing that useful data on the vanished flight's path did not quickly become available.Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK

From J. Malcolm WilkinsonReading a book on Stonehenge and other prehistoric structures by Gerald S. Hawkins, I came across some doodle-like patterns that resembled the ones shown in Alison George's article on cave art and the origins of intelligence (23 November 2013, p 36). The examples from caves in Canchal de Mahoma and La Pileta in Spain show a series of spots and lines that have been interpreted as recording the phases of the moon. Could the same explanation, a primitive record of the moon's phases and seasons of the year, apply to the drawings from El Castillo in your article? Perhaps the world's oldest calendar?Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK

From Paul SaxI am surprised to see an important point missed in Reg Platt's discussion of energy-saving policies (15 March, p 28). The more consumers save energy, the less profit that private energy companies would make, therefore prices would rise to maintain profit levels. That is just one reason these companies sabotage those government-led energy-saving policies now referred to as "green crap" by UK prime minister David Cameron's "greenest ever government".Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK

From Bill AlexanderYour article on New Zealand's shake-up of its drug laws showed how it is leading the way on drug prohibition (8 March, p 40). If only the country would decriminalise people growing marijuana plants for their own use, as several parts of Australia have done. It used to grow wild on the roadsides in New Zealand and was so easily available that it was sometimes sneaked into commercial cigarettes by tobacco workers. In the late 1960s, because of the tax potential, the effects on lowering alcohol consumption and the proliferation of "hard" drugs, marijuana was reclassified as a "dangerous" drug. At the time I was the national police reporter for the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation's radio and television news. A high-ranking officer in the Wellington Drug Squad told me that the police were not worried by young people's use of marijuana but had a growing problem with "hard" drugs sourced through what they described as medical "professionals".Ottawa, Canada

From Guy CoxThe topic of Boltzmann brains is raised once again in Joseph Silk's look at the philosophical challenges facing modern cosmology (8 March, p 26). But he doesn't mention that in Boltzmann's time the universe was seen as static. In such a universe, with infinite time, any interaction can take place. We now know that the universe is expanding and this seriously changes the picture. The further apart particles are, the less likely any particular interaction becomes. This expansion is accelerating, so with the passing of time it becomes less and less likely that Boltzmann brains could form. If there aren't any around now, the probability is against there being any in the future. Bye-bye Boltzmann brains.Sydney, Australia

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